Week #2 Memorandum

November 6th, 2021

To: OP100, Professor Dawe & Fellow Classmates
From: David Chien

Competitive & OPSCM Strategy

In our modern-day interconnected world, any company who is looking to scale their business
beyond their local borders will have to consider factors which may far exceed their original
business plans. Competition now can come from multiple places across the globe, in both the
physical and online worlds. For a company to succeed there must be an emphasis on OPSCM
which can be broken down into several key areas that guide the decision process. Any business
owner needs to be able to answer these 3 critical questions in order to maintain strength in the
marketplace:

Competitiveness – How does the company compete in the marketplace?

Strategy – What type of plans have the company devised to reach their desired goals?

Productivity – How has the company utilized its available resources to keep it competitive?

We can break down these questions by examining which areas need to be prioritized. When a
company is competitive, they understand the marketplace they are in. To do so they must consider
who their customer base is. They must consider how their pricing and output quantities affects
consumer behavior. And they must consider which methods are the most effective in increasing
their exposure to their target consumers. The operational aspects that must be considered include
how their product or services are designed, total cost involved, strategic locations, responsiveness,
how inventory is managed, how service is provided, and overall management effectiveness of their
business.

Once these questions are thoroughly analyzed and answered the company can then focus on
developing strategies and tactics which are aligned with the overall company mission. Strategies
can involve how the supply chain is administered. Examples would be where the product is
manufactured as it relates to efficiencies in cost, labor, logistics etc. Operational strategies that
revolve around how decisions are made and how productive resources are utilized. Along with the
company mission, businesses must ask questions related to considerations outside the basic design
of a product or service including:

Legal/Ethical – What are the potential” issues” and other implications of this product being
introduced to the marketplace?

Human/Cultural/Environmental – How will this product affect certain demographics/populations

and how sustainable is it in the short/medium/long term?

Indeed, over the last two years some companies have shifted focus and innovated due to specific
market reasons such as COVID-19 (Stiles, 2020). The shift in focus for pharmaceutical companies
is the most obvious example as a major race to create vaccines to combat COVID-19 took place
this last 18 months. This ability to stay agile in all market conditions is crucial. Adaptability as
outlined in a Harvard Business Review article (Simchi-Levi & Timmermans, 2021) highlights a few
examples. Firms should seek a “unified view of demand”. There should be management consensus
on which areas to focus in. While at the same time this should be segmented strategy of an overall
plan that will allow for balancing of inputs dependent on sudden changes or new challenges which
appear.

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 Question: Which industries and/or specific companies utilize specialized tactics that may not out
of the ordinary but achieve relative success?

References:

Simchi-Levi, David & Timmermans, Kris (2021, Sept/Oct), A Simpler Way to Modernize Your
Supply Chain, Harvard Business Review Online Article
https://hbr.org/2021/09/a-simpler-way-to-modernize-your-supply-chain

Stiles, Jeff (2020, July 27), 5 Strategies for Building a Resilient Supply Chain in Turbulent Times,
Oracle Supply Chain Management Online Blog,
https://blogs.oracle.com/scm/post/5-strategies-for-building-a-resilient-supply-chain-in-turbulent-
times

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